Short Takes

Is it a sign of high-tech spiritual devotion, or just another step in the melding of Israelis and their cell phones?
Reuters reports this week that an enterprising Jerusalem company is offering a text-message service for those who can't make it to the Western Wall, where Jews traditionally deposit handwritten prayer notes in the ancient crevices. They are called p'takim in Hebrew, but more commonly referred to in Yiddish as kvitlach.

For Jewish soldiers in the combat zone, the Days of Awe have replaced shock and awe.
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, chief chaplain of the New York National Guard, arrived in Kuwait from New York this week bringing with him four Torahs, five lulav and etrog sets for Sukkot, challahs, honey cake and other supplies to enhance the High Holy Days that begin this weekend.

When she debuts Thursday in NBC's "Coupling," perhaps the raciest show on network TV, Rena Sofer will have come a long way since her days as a yeshiva girl in New Jersey.
Based on a British show by the same name, "Coupling" centers on the sex lives of six young Manhattanites. Sofer's character, Susan, is "a beautiful and sexy go-getter with an uninhibited attitude toward life and the world of romance," according to network publicity.

It's not by chance that a group of Jewish cops who went to Israel earlier this month returned on Sept. 11.
"We chose that date purposely," says Detective Sam Miller, president of the Shomrim Society, the organization of Jewish police officers. "We wanted to show that we weren't intimidated, weren't afraid to fly on that date."
Many of the members were no strangers to danger, having served in some of the city's toughest precincts and, in one case, as an FBI agent. Miller is currently a hostage negotiator.